Gardasil: A Parent’s Worst Nightmare

This is Tyler, my youngest daughter and an amazing young woman of God. During one of her regular medical check-ups, the doctor recommended that she be given the HPV vaccine, Gardasil. I trusted that the doctor was giving me complete and accurate information – this is what I was taught to do – trust the doctor. Because of this trust, Tyler’s life has become a nightmare.

Tyler is now a competitive gymnast who cannot do gymnastics. She is a teenager who cannot go hang out with her friends, a student who cannot go to classes and a sister who cannot help her siblings with homework. She is a daughter who cannot sit and eat dinner with her family.

Tyler was given the first of a 3 shot series on April 15, 2012. Immediately after the injection she fainted and was out for about 45 seconds. Within days she began having severe daily headaches and insomnia ensued from there. Over the summer she was hospitalized several times to help with pain, nausea, vomiting, and lack of sleep. At this point, the doctors diagnosed her with migraines.

She missed the entire last quarter of her freshman year but was an excellent student who had maintained good enough grades to pass her classes. She had to quit gymnastics because of the pain.

Not realizing the cause of her symptoms, we took her to have the second shot on August 14, 2012. She then began having severe neck and back pain that on occasion radiated into her arms and legs (diagnosed as fibromyalgia for lack of any other explanation), insomnia, persistent nausea, dizziness, chronic fatigue and migraines in addition to the chronic daily headache.

Not knowing what caused this onset of ‘fibromyalgia’ we took her to the doctor frequently and hospitalized her when necessary. We were completely baffled by the rapid decline in her health.

She missed her entire sophomore year of school but had a tutor come into our home – she barely passed most of her courses and ended up having to drop some classes due to inability to keep up.

It was purely by the grace of God that we determined she had an adverse reaction to the vaccine which caused so many health issues.

She has now been officially medically diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic daily headache with frequent migraine & dysmenorrhea. These are all conditions she never had to deal with prior to the HPV vaccine. The doctors refuse to admit any possible connection.

We have tried everything presented to us, with little or no improvement. The doctors continue to try to treat the diagnosis of fibromyalgia but the symptoms are not responding to the treatments. They continue to give her pills that simply cause more health issues. It seems crazy to continue with the pills but we do.

The medical community says she will have to live with the pain for the rest of her life. They recommend that we seek alternative treatments to help ease the discomfort – which is very costly and not covered by insurance.

We have even attended a pain clinic in Cleveland to teach her how to “live with the pain.” A lifetime of pain is not what any parent envisions for their child. This is not what our faith says her destiny should be!

Our entire family’s life has been completely turned upside down since Tyler’s Gardasil injections. In addition to her trials, I lost my job during one of her many hospitalizations. I continue to be unemployed due to her frequent flare ups and doctor’s appointments. My husband works very hard to provide for us, but it’s not the same as it was when we had two incomes!

Tyler wants to get her driver’s license, get her GED, hang out with her friends, go to college…she just wants to be normal again! Our daily prayer is that she will soon have her life back and we will have our daughter back!

If you are a parent, you understand how hard it is to see your child suffer. It has been 2 years since I last saw my baby be herself. I would do whatever it takes to help my child feel better, but at this point, we are out of options!